1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital networks, and more particularly, it relates to a system and method for providing diagnostics and troubleshooting tools for a communications device.
2. Description of the Related Art
IP Telephony (VoIP) is a converged voice/data technology that uses the data networks to carry voice (telephone) traffic, and is rapidly revolutionizing the world of enterprise communications. Some benefits of IP telephony include the ability to manage individual phone systems, access to a plethora of features and applications, improved reliability, improved performance, substantial cost savings and unified messaging.
Typically, SIP phones have a variety of features and functionalities that can be used for support and troubleshooting. Similarly call server partners (hosted and CPE based) combine their own capabilities with those of the phones to facilitate troubleshooting and support. Various tools, such syslog, variable levels of logging, RTCP-XR call statistics, error messages menu on the Telephone User Interface (TUI), are currently used to help with troubleshooting and support. The tools generally capture data to assist in the understanding of events or debugging actions or events, such as, capturing WIRESHARK® traces, retrieving config files, turning syslog on. However, VOIP solutions can be complex, making troubleshooting field issues more difficult with current capabilities. Oftentimes, syslog data does not provide sufficient data to effect a thorough diagnosis of a problem, which can greatly impact the problem resolution times. Prior art systems may also include numerous modules that produce logs, with each module having a plethora of logging levels, but with limited logging options for live environments. As such, relying solely on these reactive prior art troubleshooting methods leads to prolonged service interruptions for end users, and also places a considerable burden on the end users
It is thus an object of the present invention to mitigate or obviate at least one of the above-mentioned disadvantages.